(Olympics) S. Korea crashes and burns early in inaugural short track mixed relay

▲ Park Jang-hyuk of South Korea crashes into the padding during the mixed team relay in short track speed skating at the Beijing Winter Olympics at Capital Indoor Arena in Beijing on Feb. 5, 2022. (Yonhap)

(Olympics) S Korea-short track

(Olympics) S. Korea crashes and burns early in inaugural short track mixed relay

By Yoo Jee-ho

BEIJING, Feb. 5 (Yonhap) -- South Korea fell well shy of a medal in short track speed skating's mixed team relay on Saturday, unable to make history in the inaugural Olympic event in Beijing after a disastrous fall.

The quartet of Choi Min-jeong, Lee Yu-bin, Hwang Dae-heon and Park Jang-hyuk got knocked out of the quarterfinals at Capital Indoor Stadium.

There were 12 teams divided into three races in the quarterfinals. The top two teams from each race and the two fastest third-place teams qualified for the semifinals.

South Korea had a time of 2:48.308 to finish third in its race, after Park Jang-hyuk lost his balance and fell with three laps to go.

The United States finished third in the third quarterfinal race, and had the best time among No. 3 teams at 2:39.043. Kazakhstan also snuck into the semifinals at 2:43.004 out of the second race.

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